Issue 131
👽 We're Contacting Aliens (Again), and Elon Musk Has a Lot of Money
Intro
Hello there!
This month, Tom stumbled across an open laptop with a blank document and decided to fill it with interesting (nay bizarre) stories from around the tech-based web. Here's what he found:
You can now get prescription lenses for your Virtual Reality (VR) headset 👁👁
Ah, so doctors can "holoport" to you now 🩺
First you get the Bitcoin, then you get the power… 💸
Enjoy, Tom
📰 From the Newsroom
You can now get prescription lenses for your Virtual Reality (VR) headset 👁👁
We'd bet that there's more than a handful of gamers who permanently squint at their TV sets. However, VR gamers don't have to worry about this any longer. You can now obtain prescriptions lenses for a selection of different headsets.
This makes a lot of sense, given that the ability to see as you would in real-life is important to the whole experience. However, given that the technology is new, there are a few limitations:
First, you might think the lenses cost a lot – up to $100 in some cases depending on the model of your headset and your needs.
There aren't too many retailers who can help you out. After all, you can't walk into your local opticians and ask for some new Oculus lenses. However, the lenses available have a lot of options, and in some cases are 'official.'
You'll still need to go through the standard practices for regular lenses, such as undertaking eye exams.
Still, at least this is one way to cut down on the crippling migraine headaches that accompany my nightly Minecraft VR sessions, or is that just me?
zdnet.com
Ah, so doctors can "holoport" to you now 🩺
Here's a joke for you: What do you get if you cross a hologram and teleportation? The answer is "holoport," which means this is a terrible – yet factual – joke. Yes, holoporting is now a thing. The boffins at NASA and AEXA Aerospace have managed to beam a doctor aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for a quick meeting and proof of concept.
We think this is important for a few reasons:
It looks to be a (far-off) future way to expand the metaverse, in that you could theoretically buy a ticket to an event and be there without the travel. This means a specific venue might be able to house a practically unlimited number of people.
There's a potential educational benefit, because you can travel to places and areas we can't access, without the physical limitations. Consider a situation where we can investigate the ruins underneath Chichen Itza, or the Egyptian pyramids.
If we take a literal interpretation of the experiment, we could almost centralize medical care and essential services. From there, you could serve war zones and other neglected areas, although there would still be a need for hands-on care.
Look, people knock holograms of Whitney Houston, Tupac, and Elvis, but they are clearly the pioneers of virtual space travel.
cnet.com
First you get the Bitcoin, then you get the power… 💸
If you can't be bothered to work out three times a day, starve yourself, and cope with the affects of severe dehydration, maybe a career as a social media fitness influencer isn't for you. However, if you still want to make obscene amounts of cash, you could always shill cryptocurrencies.
The Twitter account ZachXBT carried out some research and has released a spreadsheet showing how you can pay many 'crypto-influencers' to mention and sell a currency on social media. While we joke, this does have some real-world ramifications:
Some influencers on the list in the Vice article stated that they don't know what they're promoting or selling. For a user who reads their posts and makes a decision based on their loyalty to an influencer, this could spell trouble.
The volatile and unregulated crypto industry arguably needs good publicity that boosts its integrity and good points, rather than boosting the opinion of those who shout, "Scam!" Crypto and blockchain technology has lots of benefits, but this isn't helpful to the cause.
What's more, we're not getting any money to promote anything on social media, we need prescription lenses for our VR headsets, and it's not fair.
vice.com
⛓️ Ten Must See Links of the Month
Boston's Logan International Airport security decided a beat up PlayStation is enough of a threat to evacuate an entire terminal. Either that, or they wanted some peace while they played Elden Ring.
Mushrooms are like, totally going to make it once they find a drummer. It turns out that the bio-electrical signals in mushrooms can produce cool electronica if you plug them into a synthesizer. There's no word on whether they use USB 2 or 3 ports.
Hello there fellow kids! The FBI has an 83-page handbook on internet speak. ROTFL, that's dank (I think 🤷🏻♂️).
Planets apparently emit a millisecond-long burst of radio waves as they die akin to a scream. So, that's, you know, emotionally crippling.
If notification bells give you anxiety, why not let Google transfer this to typically calm-inducing actions such as tiny puffs of air? Well, you might soon be able to if you use ambient notifications.
If the Boston Dynamics robot experiments teach us one thing, it's that we do not want mecha-feelings to exist. However, 3D fingertips for robots help make this more of a reality.
Speaking of which, here is a creepy-crawly LEGO robot that does not need any further attention or experimental funding grants, thank you.
If you dream of being the dorky scientist from an action movie that creates a destructive invention, you could do worse than apply for Amazon's vague job for a “new-to-world smart-home product” developer (hint: you're making a death ray, probably.)
We're contacting aliens, yet again. This time, we're going to let them get the jump on us: we're broadcasting the location of Earth and our DNA. Does nobody in the cosmologist community know about online safety?
Some hospitals are using Moxi: a six-foot tall robot nurse that helps to ferry supplies around for burnt out and busy staff. Come on, man – did we not just talk about how we don't want droid-based feelings up in our space?
🎤 It’s How They Said It
"…Most of the disorder and dysfunction in the world is caused by lack of impulse control…" Dr. Andrew Huberman
🧮 The numbers game
There's been a 33% increase in electric car charging ports in the UK since April 2021.
Netflix has seen a 35.1% drop in its share price after losing over 200,000 subscribers in total from the last quarter.
$46.5 billion: The amount of funding Elon Musk has to buy up Twitter Inc., including over $33 billion of his own money.
Outro
That's it for the week. If you have links to share, then my emails are always open. Simply reply to this email to land in my inbox.
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Have a great month, - Tom